C2E2 10: Bendis Tells the Ultimate Mystery

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Brian Bendis discusses Ultimate Comics Mystery, the second part of his Ultimate trilogy.

By Richard George

C2E2 is a big show for writer Brian Michael Bendis. Earlier today we published our first interview with Bendis regarding his next creator-owned series, Scarlett. And with Siege #4 just a few weeks from shipping, Bendis' latest event book is very much on everyone's minds.

But Bendis also had another new series to announce at C2E2 this weekend. As previously revealed, his mini-series Ultimate Comics Enemy is the first chapter of a trilogy that aims to bring a dangerous new foe into the Ultimate universe. We now know that the sequel will be called Ultimate Mystery. Bendis will once again be joined by artist Rafa Sandoval for this project.

We had the chance to speak to Bendis about Ultimate Mystery along with our other recent chats. Though Ultimate Enemy still has one issue left to go, he was able to reveal more about this new threat and what it means for our Ultimate heroes.

IGN Comics: Ultimate Mystery is the second part of your Ultimate Enemy trilogy, with the first being Ultimate Enemy and the third being Ultimate Doom. We're faced with the interesting prospect of talking about the second installment when the first part hasn't wrapped up yet. So, uh, what do you want to tell me about Ultimate Mystery? –laughs-

Brian Bendis: Yeah, I apologize about it. It doesn't make for the most exciting interview, does it? I was talking to a friend the other day about this. Promoting this is like Elmore Leonard promoting some element of one of his novels that's 100 pages in when you're only 50 pages into it. It's a very difficult task.

So at the end of Ultimate Enemy, the damage this thing has done to the universe has been expressed. Its point of view is known, and the survivors will go after, like detectives, after this thing to figure out who it is who knew Nick Fury was alive, who knew where Peter Parker lived, who knew where Reed's family had been moved, that knew all of these things to do so much damage to the Ultimate Universe and unleash such a horrible thing.

It would be hilarious to say it's Magneto again… I saw someone on my boards say "If it's Magneto again I'm f**king dropping all your books!" And I was like, "That would be the funniest thing I've ever done in my life! That would have been hilarious!"

But there's a genuine mystery with clues, and you, the reader, can help try and solve the "ultimate" mystery if you will. In this book you'll have Spider-Man teaming with Spider-Woman for the first time. Peter Parker can't go home until this is solved. Captain Marvel returns as well. There's a shocking development in the life of Ben Grimm that's something you've never seen. It's something that I really like about the Ultimate Universe. We can take the icon that is The Thing and do something that is true to his character but completely new. And that will be developed a great deal in Ultimate Mystery. So for me that alone is worth the price of admission. This part of the story is very, very appealing to me. I'm very excited to do this and I've wanted to do this for years.

IGN Comics: Now is this a new villain or is this an Ultimization of an existing character?

Bendis: Well I don't want to say too much because I don't want to give it all away. I think I read an interview by Greg Rucka, because he's a mystery writer, and he said what is interesting is that you can fool 10, 20 or more people but when you put thousands of people online… someone's going to guess it! There aren't that many choices. I think about that a lot. What's funny is when I see people on the boards guessing, and someone will have guessed it, but it's one of like 200 guesses. Then when the reveal is made, everyone is like "oh, I knew that" –it's like no you didn't, you read his guess! –laughs- That's not the same! I saw!

I will say that the point of Ultimatum was to tell new types of Marvel stories. These reinterpretations of older stories were fine, but what I'm really interested in post-Ultimatum is new kinds of stories. Stories we haven't seen before that involves tons of iconic Marvel elements. This is one of the stories I've been dying to tell. The reveal of the villain will be in this second mini-series.

IGN Comics: We're currently in the first part of the trilogy and we won't discover the villain until the second. Is it challenging as a writer to keep hooks going for readers despite not playing your hand and showing them what the central threat is?

Bendis: Well, you know what, it's a genre and sub-genre I'm comfortable in. I came from crime fiction so I've always looked for appropriate ways to mesh the genres when possible. Powers, for example, is a murder mystery every year. So it is something I'm versed in. What I try to do here is involve these characters in a story they rarely get to be a part of, and at the same time what I try to do is take the characters like Nick Fury and Spider-Man out of the equation and see if the mystery is still good. Is there still a solid, good mystery? You scrape off one genre and see if the other is still strong – then you weave them back together again.

IGN Comics: In terms of Ultimate Mystery, are we looking at a different tone or vibe compared to Ultimate Enemy?

Bendis: Absolutely. My favorite types of stories – whether it's movies or what have you – feature acts that almost take on a life of their own movie. Think about the Superman movie. The three acts couldn't be of a different tone. The wild, wide-eyed vistas of Smallville versus Metropolis and so on. In Ultimate Mystery they have to look at the world differently because they know they're being hunted. A more conspiratorial tone takes over the book. At one point I was actually going to have three different artists on the books to elaborate that more, but I'm loving Rafa Sandoval's work so much that I asked that we keep him on.

IGN Comics: In terms of the scope of the event, is this more central to the five to six characters involved in the mystery or does this start to encompass the globe, galaxy, etc.?

Bendis: We'll keep it focused on their point of view. The landscape gets bigger and bigger, but I don't think you want to clutter the narrative with too many more views. I think you certainly have a good cross section of points of view with the existing characters. So that's where we'll stay.

IGN Comics: It's interesting to me that this comes fairly close on the heels of something like Ultimatum. Is it a challenge for you to come up with something that stands apart from Ultimatum? I can't think of an event that has changed more – and killed more – than Ultimatum. Is it a challenge to follow that?

Bendis: Well to me I couldn't do this without Ultimatum, so I just look at it differently. In a sense I see it as I'm running in the shadow of Warren Ellis's Ultimate Galactus trilogy. It has a format similar to that and it has a mystery that couldn't be revealed in the initial marketing of the book. Once word gets out on what it is, people are going to want to read it. What I also look at is how Galactus was filled with familiar Marvel icons and yet at every turn there was something new. That's what I think the Ultimate Universe is supposed to do, so this is the type of story that should be told.

IGN Comics: Is there anything else you want to add about Ultimate Mystery?

Bendis: I think what most people want to know is when the mystery is going to be revealed. And you will find out in this mini-series.